The general objective of the Space Safety Programme is to contribute to the protection of our planet, humanity, and assets in Space and on Earth from hazards originating in Space and to provide a service to Europe’s society by providing safety from such hazards. This requires action in the areas of Space Weather, Planetary Defence, Space Debris and Clean Space. COSMIC (COre, Small Mission and projects including Competitiveness and CREAM) is one activity of the Space Safety Programme, which was firstly introduced in Period 2 and is now continued in Period 3. It supports projects and activities of the four above mentioned areas – some of them have evolved into self-standing projects in these areas.

The competitiveness segment is a part of COSMIC aiming to develop the Space safety’s market and commercialisation dimensions by shortening the innovation path from technology to product/service and via ESA acting as trial user and early adopter of industry’s products/services, thus reducing business risks. Being industry driven and subject to a fast-track procurement process to shorten the time to market, it addresses activities in all areas of COSMIC, i.e.

In Space Weather

• Evolution of the Space Weather Services
• Improving existing and adding new capabilities through networking and development of European Space weather assets and expertise
• Enhancing Space weather monitoring and measurement capability in support of existing and new services
• Developing commercial Space weather data and service provision

In Planetary Defence

• Transition to full operational autonomy of the NEO Coordination Centre for provision of information and data assessment
• Ensuring availability of European observational capabilities for NEO surveys
• Characterisation of NEOs (physical characteristics such as size, rotation period, spectral class)

In Space Debris and Clean Space

• Technologies assessment for small-sized debris observation, test and qualification of sensors and related data processing
• Technology and services for automated collision avoidance
• Laser tracking and momentum transfer through ground-based systems
• Space debris consequence analyses through Space environment impact and risk assessments
• Technologies in preparation of a zero-debris approach and a circular economy in Space
• Development of green technologies (eco-design) and capabilities to assess environmental impacts (life-cycle assessment)

More information on the Space Safety Programme and related news are available from the dedicated ESA webpage: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/.

The Call for Proposal (CfP) Process

 The CfP process follows a two-stage approach:

PB SSA: Programme Board Space Situational Awareness
PC: Programme Committee (TBC)

First Stage: Outline Proposal 

The first stage consists in the submission of an Outline Proposal (using the template provided hereunder as attachment named "Outline_Proposal_Template.docx"), which can be done via OSIP at any point in time during this permanently open call.

• Enter your Outline Proposal (also called "idea" here in OSIP) via the idea submission form;
• Each eligible Outline Proposal will be assessed by ESA experts against the Evaluation Criteria mentioned below;
• If the assessment is positive you will be invited by communication via OSIP to submit a Full Proposal as described below (see Second Stage).

Note:

Confirmation of support from the National Delegations of all entities involved, including any subcontractor(s), must be provided via OSIP. A Confirmation of the acknowledgement via OSIP that ESA may share the Economic Operator's Outline Proposal with the Economic Operator’s respective National Delegation(s) shall also be provided. 

Please take note the Special Conditions applying to the submission as listed below. 

Second Stage: Full Proposal

The second stage consists of the submission of a Full Proposal via esa-star tendering (using the template attached as Appendix 3 to the CfP Cover Letter) following the Agency’s positive assessment of your Outline Proposal and only if the Economic Operator is explicitly invited by the Agency to submit a Full Proposal.

• Write and submit a Full Proposal using the template provided in esa-star;
• ESA will evaluate your Full Proposal against evaluation criteria stated in the CfP tender action package on esa-star publication. For convenience, these documents are also provided as attachment of this channel. Please note however that the documents on esa-star shall take precedence in case of discrepancies and all Clarifications (if any) to the CfP are exclusively published in esa-star but not in OSIP;
• Successful Full Proposal will be invited to a negotiation meeting and possibly lead to the placement of a co-funded Cooperative Agreement.

Note: 

Partners must attach the formal written statement(s) of support from their relevant National Delegation(s) as an Annex to the Full Proposal Cover Letter and confirm that the respective National Delegation’s(s’) ceiling budget(s) stated therein is(are) complied with.

-or-

Partners confirm that the Agency has obtained the formal written statement(s) of support from the respective National Delegation(s) and that the ceiling budget(s) stated therein is(are) complied with.

An indicative timeline for the process is provided below:

Co-funding options and conditions

The selected activities will be funded by the Agency to a maximum percentage of the total allowable cost of the activity, depending on whether the Economic Operator qualifies as a University and Research Institution, SME or Non-SME. The remainder shall be funded by the Economic Operator and must not include any additional co-funding from the public sector.

The funding contributed by the Economic Operator to cover their percentage of the total allowable costs shall take the form of financial contribution only. The Agency will not accept funding in any other form. 

The ceilings fixed for Agency funding are as follows:

• Work carried out by SMEs may be funded by the Agency up to a maximum of 80% of the total allowable cost of the activity;
• Universities and Research Institutions must not be the prime contractor. 
• Work carried out by universities and research institutions involved as subcontractors and justifying no further commercial interest in the product may be funded to a maximum level of 100% by the Agency if this funding does not exceed 30% of the total allowable cost of the activity (Note: Work carried out by universities and research institutions involved as subcontractors and justifying no further commercial interest in the product may be funded by the Agency up to a maximum level of 30% of the total allowable cost of the activity);
• Work carried out by Economic Operators that are not SMEs nor Universities and Research Institutions may be funded up to a maximum of 50% of the total allowable cost of the activity.